Zadig - The Stellar Hunter EP

Zadig - The Stellar Hunter EP
Tresor has been beefing up its roster lately, dropping label debuts from Mønic, Shao Yanpeng and Psyk in the past year. Their latest is Zadig, AKA Parisian producer Sylvain Peltier, who runs Construct Re-Form and has appeared on the likes of Syncrophone and Deeply Rooted. Peltier trades in a sleek, ultra-focused sort of techno: melody comes in shards and bursts rather than big synth lines, and his DJing is tracky and linear. The Stellar Hunter is another rock-solid entry in his catalogue, with one standout track backed by two competent workouts.

The title track is one of Zadig's boldest, its basslines sounding like burned-out Reeses taken from a '90s techstep jam. Just when you think the tune has locked into a groove, Peltier drops a bleeping synth that twinkles like a sky full of stars, opening up a whole new side of "The Stellar Hunter." It's packed with percussion, with every element going full-bore almost all the time, and yet it's full of dynamic touches—wait for the end, when he drops jackhammer kicks.

The flipside is more composed and has Peltier playing the long game with repetitive pieces. "Beyond The Portal Of Madness" is a utilitarian slow-burner with Ostgut Ton-style chord modulation, while "The Man From Outer Space" highlights Peltier's ability to wring melody from the sparest of sounds (in this case, some high-pitched resonance that hangs above the track like a fog). What these latter two lack in personality they make up for in functionality, the kind of modern, no-nonsense techno we'd expect from a Tresor 12-inch.

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Berlin based techno label started in July 1991 by Dimitri Hegemann, taking its name from the techno club set up in an underground vault following the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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